The Griner Trade?

Now, if you heard someone mention the word “trade” with the name Brittney Griner, you may think that the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA were getting rid of one of their star players. And in this case, nothing could be further than the truth. What they are referring is the swap of Brittney Griner to the United States for a player to be named later.

That player is Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout.

Griner had been in a Mordavian labor camp since last month, when she lost her appeal. Back in February, Griner was arrested at a Moscow district airport when it was found that she had cannabis oil in her luggage. Oops. That’s a major crime in Russia. She was jailed, and took forever to await trial. When tried, she ended up getting sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail. Of course, that was over the screams of protest of folks back here in the good ol’ USA. She appealed, and after she lost the appeal in November, was moved from a jail cell to a labor camp to spend the rest of her sentence.

Joe Biden tried for months to get Russia to release Griner, without any luck. It was only when he asked the United Arab Emirates to help out did things start to move. Biden has also been trying to obtain the release of two other Americans held in Russia, Paul Whelan and Marc Fogel. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage. Fogel, an American teacher, had been jailed and sentenced to 14 years hard labor for having medical marijuana in his posession. It has been assumed that the trio really weren’t held for legal purposes but were taken hostage so that Russia could get someone like Bout back from American prison.

Bout had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for various charges involving arms dealing and conspiracy to kill Americans. He’s been described as “one bad dude”.

OK, so why would I care about a WNBA all-star that got caught with pot in a foreign country getting swapped out for an arms dealer? Why would we be talking about it in the first place? Because first off, Griner should know better than to have something like hashish oil in her luggage when going through security. How many brains does it take to realize that’s not something you do in a dictatorship like Russia? That’s the first problem here.

The next problem is why in the world would the US consider swapping a convicted arms dealer who had planned on killing Americans and was serving 25 years in prison for a basketball player who had some vaping oil in her possession? That’s like trading a drug cartel leader for a jaywalker, right? It may have made sense if Whelan and Fogel were both included in the swap. But to have just a one-for-one swap? Does that sound right to everyone?

Here’s the other problem I have with this whole scenario. Biden went after Griner first. Granted, she’s a star basketball player. She’s got a gold medal from the Olympics, and is a WNBA all star. But, and I can’t believe I would even bring this up, but does the fact that she’s black AND gay have anything to do with it? I’m not saying it did, I’m just asking the question. And while we are on the subject of Biden, and Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who tried for ten months to secure Griner’s release, why were they so inept? Neither Biden nor Blinken could budge the Russian authorities (read that as Vladimir Putin). They had to enlist the aid of the United Arab Emirates in order to secure her release. It’s yet another example of the lack of leadership that we’re seeing from this administration. They can’t seem to tie their shoes without bringing in other countries to help them get that knot tied.

And what about Whelan and Fogel? Here are two guys still sitting in prison in Russia, and all Biden can say to their families is, “Gee, I feel really bad we weren’t able to get them out! Maybe we can keep trying”? I guess if they had been NBA all stars, maybe they’d have gotten some better treatment from the State Department!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!